Tina Sacks

Assistant Professor

TINA SACKS is an assistant professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare. Her fields of interest include racial inequities in health, social determinants of health, and poverty and inequality. Professor Sacks focuses on the how macro-structural forces, including structural discrimination and immigration, affect women’s health. Her current work investigates the persistence of racial and gender discrimination in health care settings among racial/ethnic minorities who are not poor. She published a book on this subject entitled Invisible Visits: Black Middle Class Women in the American Healthcare System (Oxford, 2019) Her next major project explores the implications of the infamous U.S. Public Health Service Tuskegee Syphilis Study on the Study’s direct descendants.

Professor Sacks is also the principal investigator of two projects on immigration and health including a bi-national study of migration, labor, and health among indigenous Mexican women in California and Oaxaca, Mexico. She also leads a study of gender dynamics and food stamp participation among Latina immigrants in California in collaboration with the Berkeley Food Institute and the UC Berkeley Nutrition Policy Institute.

Professor Sacks’ work has been published in Race and Social Problems, Qualitative Social Work, Family and Community Health, Health Affairs, the New Yorker, and MSNBC News. In addition to her scholarship, Dr. Sacks collaborates with Carlos Javier Ortiz, a photographer and documentary filmmaker, on issues affecting Black and Latino communities. Their films, We All We Got (2015) and A Thousand Midnights (2016), appeared at the AFI, Tribeca, LA, and St. Louis International Film Festivals among others.

Prior to joining Berkeley Social Welfare, Professor Sacks spent nearly a decade working for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she worked on public health policy with special emphasis in environmental and women’s health programs. Her experience includes serving as the special assistant to the director of the CDC, legislative director of the Baltimore City Health Department, and executive director of a non-profit healthcare organization.

PEER REVIEWED PRESENTATIONS

Sacks, T. (2015, January). “Use of the Vignette Technique in a Qualitative Study of Health Disparities.” Presentation delivered at the Society for Social Work Research Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.

Sacks, T., Das, A., Jones, A., Hoffman, C., Staller, K., Padgett, D., Gilgun, J. (2015, January). “Beyond Description: A Workshop on Moving from Description to Analysis in Qualitative Social Work Research.” Panel discussion held at the Society for Social Work Research Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.

Sacks, T. (2014, October). Negotiating the Health Care Encounter: Race, Class and Gender in the Age of the Affordable Care Act. University of California Berkeley Alumni Weekend Speaker’s Series (invited).

Sacks, T. (2014, January). “Sanguinity and the Black Body: African American Women, Hysterectomy and Reproductive Freedom.” Presentation delivered at the Society for Social Work Research Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX.

Sacks, T. (2013, January). "Ain’t I a Woman": Black Middle Class Women Discuss Race and Gender Preference in Healthcare. Presentation delivered at the Society for Social Work Research Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.

Sacks, T. (2012, October). “Demonstrate You Are Also a Person”: Healthcare Disparities Among Black Middle Class Women. Presentation delivered at the American Public Health Association Conference, San Francisco, CA.

Sacks, T. (2012, January). Mobilizing Class Resources and Presenting the Self: A Qualitative Study of Healthcare Disparities Among Black Middle Class Women. Presentation delivered at the Society for Social Work Research Annual Meeting, Washington, DC.

Sacks, T. (2010, October). Understanding Health Care Disparities: Using Qualitative Data to Explore Perspectives of Middle Class African American Women.Presentation delivered at the Council on Social Work Education Annual Meeting, Portland, OR.

Mininger, C. & Sacks, T. (2008, January). Measuring the Built Environment in Breast Cancer Research. Paper presentation at the annual conference of the Society for Social Work Research, Washington, DC.

Sacks, T. Curry, A., Bird, Jason, Darrow, J. (October, 2008). Exploring Opportunities and Challenges for Teaching Assistants. The University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration, Teaching Workshop, Chicago, IL.

Sacks, T. Mininger, C. & Gehlert, S. (2007, April). Social Isolation, the Built Environment, and Breast Cancer. Proseminar Series at the Institute for Mind and Body, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Qualitative methods open analytical pathways and present specific challenges, particularly for early career scholars forging a path in a field dominated by quantitative inquiry. However, for many scholars, qualitative methods reflect a particular ontological point of view, which tends toward privileging the experiences of groups that are often marginalized in research. Given this point of view, qualitative methodologies provide an opportunity to reframe the participant’s en vivo description of their own experience. In so doing, qualitative methods invite scholars to create new analytical pathways.

This paper highlights the work of social work scholars using qualitative methods to forge new paths in studying emergent phenomena, e.g., Internet gang banging, transgender perspectives on aging, etc. The paper also explores the use of qualitative methods to develop new analytical perspectives on experiences of historic and contemporary trauma related to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and in child welfare settings.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an approach that engages community residents with a goal of influencing change in community health systems, programs, or policies. As such, CBPR is particularly relevant to historically marginalized communities that often have not directly benefited from the knowledge research produces. This article analyzes a youth empowerment program, Chicago’s Youth Health Service Corps, from a CBPR perspective. The purpose of this work was (1) to discuss Youth Health Service Corps as a health promotion program, (2) examine the use of CBPR within the immigrant community, and (3) discuss preliminary findings using a model on critical youth empowerment.

Keywords

Join Berkeley Social Welfare

The School of Social Welfare Admissions Office guides prospective graduate applicants via online resources, in-person and phone advising, group presentations and recruitment events. Find out more about Berkeley Social Welfare’s application requirements and admission process.

The School of Social Welfare is a place that brings together people with some incredible aspirations and connects them with knowledgeable, profound professors and incredible staff.

- James Orlando (MSW ’11),
Berkeley Social Welfare Alumni

Academic Programs

Berkeley Social Welfare trains our students for a range of leadership, research, teaching and practice roles in the profession. Students are prepared to practice at specific intervention levels and are thoroughly grounded in the knowledge of social and psychological concerns, social welfare policies and social service organizations.

The collaborative opportunities both within and outside the School of Social Welfare are outstanding, the academic environment is rich and challenging and the location can't be beat.

- Aron Shlonsky (PhD ’02),
Berkeley Social Welfare alumni

Resources for Current Students

Berkeley Social Welfare offers a variety of advising resources to help guide students through their academic program, the Berkeley campus and into the world of social work. The following web resources are frequently accessed by current Social Welfare students.

Field Education

As students develop their applied mastery in one of over 350 carefully selected field placements, Berkeley Social Welfare field education consultants provide them with individualized assessment, support and coaching throughout their academic journey.

My internships at the School helped me realize that I had the skills to be a leader, a manager and a systems-thinker. I learned as much about myself at UC Berkeley as I did about social welfare.

- Ericka Leer (MSW ’05),
Berkeley Social Welfare alumna

Research

UC Berkeley’s world-class faculty and research units can be leveraged to conduct studies that make a difference. Berkeley Social Welfare faculty lead a number of research units, and the School houses the California Child Welfare Indicators Project and the California Social Work Education Center. To learn more about the important work and cutting-edge research taking place at the School of Social Welfare, explore our specialized Research Areas and Research Units.

Programs

Berkeley Social Welfare houses several programs designed to provide educational and training opportunities to social work students and professionals; contribute impactful research informing service delivery; and foster relationships among institutions, students and service providers in California, the United States and throughout the globe.

People

The UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare's pre-eminent faculty rank top in the nation in per capita productivity. Nationally and internationally recognized as leaders in their fields, our senate faculty conducts cutting-edge research on the major issues facing California, the US and the world. Berkeley Social Welfare field faculty represent a diversity of experience and talents, training and preparing our students to excel as the next generation of social work practitioners, professionals and educators.

People

The UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare's pre-eminent faculty rank top in the nation in per capita productivity. Nationally and internationally recognized as leaders in their fields, our senate faculty conducts cutting-edge research on the major issues facing California, the US and the world. Berkeley Social Welfare field faculty represent a diversity of experience and talents, training and preparing our students to excel as the next generation of social work practitioners, professionals and educators.

People

The UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare's pre-eminent faculty rank top in the nation in per capita productivity. Nationally and internationally recognized as leaders in their fields, our senate faculty conducts cutting-edge research on the major issues facing California, the US and the world. Berkeley Social Welfare field faculty represent a diversity of experience and talents, training and preparing our students to excel as the next generation of social work practitioners, professionals and educators.